A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

CHAPTER 13

Chapter 12:12 warned us that there would be sorrow on both earth and sea. Then right at the end of Chapter 12 the dragon (the devil) stood where the sea and the land met. He was ready to fight against God's people in every nation. So now the two wild animals appear. They will help the devil in his bad work. The first wild animal is in verses 1-10. It comes up out of the sea. It is a picture of the Roman Empire. The second wild animal comes up out of the earth or the land. It is a picture of false religion. This is religion used to help the Roman Empire. But remember that these same things happen over and over again.

As you read this chapter, you may see in it things that you know all about. These 'animals' come up from below. Our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to this world.

Verses 1-10: The first wild animal. (The Second Vision)

John sees this wild animal as it comes up out of the sea. The Roman power - the army and the government - came to Asia from the west over the Aegean Sea. We should not think of this sea as a calm sea. (Daniel 7:2; see also 7:1.) The sea can be stormy and wild. This one is. This wild animal puts together the pictures of the four wild animals in Daniel 7:3-6. It has ten horns and seven heads. John speaks about the horns first. They come up first out of the water. If you look at 12:3, you will see that the dragon had crowns on his heads. Here, the wild animal has crowns on its horns. Horns stand for power. The devil likes people to think he is very clever. So his heads were crowned. But Rome ruled by power. So the horns are crowned on the first wild animal.

Now look at Luke 4:6. There the devil tempts our Lord Jesus Christ. The devil, of course, is a liar, but there is a little truth in what he says. Otherwise what he says to us would not tempt us. He offers to Jesus the authority and glory which the world's kings have. He says that he can give it to anyone that he wants to have it. Jesus, of course, will not bow down and worship the devil. But Rome will. So in the second part of this verse, the devil gives to Rome his power, the right to rule and great authority.

The head (verse 3) which seemed to have had its throat cut is probably Nero. His rule over the Roman Empire went from bad to worse. His only gift was as an actor. He killed great numbers of Christians in Rome in AD. 64. But in AD.68. he killed himself. In the months that followed, three Caesars ruled for a few months each. They were all bad. Roman armies in the west fought and killed each other. The Roman Empire could easily have come to an end. But Vespasian became Caesar late in AD.69. and restored order. He was the general who had led the Roman Army in the east against the Jews. [13.1]

So the 'head' only seemed to have had its throat cut. Jesus really did die and He rose again. The Roman Empire almost came to an end but from AD.70. it made a fresh start. We must remember that most people were quite happy with Roman rule. So in verse 4, we find that the devil receives worship because he is the real power behind the Roman Empire. People know that this is so, and they worship the wild animal. They join in worship of the goddess 'Roma': she stands for the city of Rome. And they join in the worship of Caesar as a 'god'.

We noticed that the name of 'Michael' meant: - 'Who is like God'? Now people turn round things that should only be said about God. They give God's honour to the wild animal. (See Exodus 15:11.) This is 'blasphemy'. People 'blaspheme' when they speak hard, bitter things against God. They 'blaspheme' when they take things that are only true of God and use them in praise of someone else.

They say here: 'Who is a match for the wild animal'? This is 'blasphemy'. We worship God because He is good, because He is love, because of His grace. But when people worship the wild animal it is power that they worship.

Verse 5 tells us that the wild animal will not have power for ever. In verse 6, he tells ugly lies ('slanders') about God's Name. God's name is, of course, love, salvation, blessing and honour and all that is good. 'Those who live in heaven' are not only God and the angels. (See 7:15-17.) The devil gives the wild animal power to fight against God's holy people, that is, the Christians. And the wild animal even seems to 'overcome' them. (See 11:7). But really, even when he kills them, the Christians overcome him. He cannot take away their faith in Jesus. This is what the wild animal wants to do.

The second half of verse 7 is like 11:9. More important, it is like 7:9. The devil may give the wild animal power over all men. But he cannot stop God's work. God will gather His people together from every part of the world and from every race of men.

So verse 8 tells us that there are two kinds of people. First, there are those who 'live on the earth'. They do not look for anything more than this life can give. These people worship the 'wild animal', Rome. They are quite happy to do it. After all, a lot of people made money from trade with Rome. And Rome gives honour and some authority in these cities to other people. This made them feel quite important and proud of themselves.

There is a second kind of people. They are the Christians. They will not worship the wild animal. And now John says something very wonderful about these people. God has 'a book of life'. That is a book that has a list in it of all the people to whom God will give eternal life. And God wrote the names in it right back when He made the world. The book belongs to 'the Lamb who had His throat cut' - He died for us. And God has written the names of all the Christians who will not worship the wild animal in that book. [13.2].

Verses 9 and 10 are not at all easy to understand. It seems best to understand the first part of verse 10 like this: -

It may be the will of God that a Christian should suffer and go into prison. If so then the Christian should go to prison'.

The next part of the verse means something like this: -

'The wild animal and those who do his work kill people. They use a sword to kill Christians. But everyone who uses a sword to kill other people will themselves be killed'. (See Matthew 26:52 for the words of Jesus.)

So when Christians suffer and die because of their faith, they must be brave. Christians have the hope of eternal life and glory. And Christians know that God will punish those who do what is wrong. But Jesus does tell us (Matthew 10:23) that we may leave a place and go somewhere else if we are likely to be punished for being Christians. The Good News is often spread in this way.

Verses 11-18: The third ‘vision’: the Second Wild Animal.

This second wild animal is a picture of the religion of the Roman Empire. It worked with the Roman power. Most of the people in Asia were quite happy about it. John says these things in verse 11 about the second 'wild animal': -

1. It came 'up out of the earth'. Most people gave the system their support.

2. It had two horns 'like a lamb'. Nothing is said about crowns. It looks as though it would not hurt anybody. Older sheep have horns. Young lambs do not. It is not as proud as the first wild animal.

3. It was different when it spoke. No one has ever heard a dragon speak. So the meaning is a little difficult. Perhaps it roared. More likely the meaning is that what it said was cruel.

In verse 12, we see that this 'wild animal' is at work for the first wild animal. He does this 'before its very eyes'. The Roman power knows what happens. The second wild animal forces every one to worship the first wild animal.

In verse 13 we learn that this second wild animal did great signs. One of these was to make fire come down from the sky to the earth. And he did this where everyone could see it. (See 1 Kings 18:24. The prophets of Baal tried to do this and failed.)

There is something here which we all need to learn. Not all wonderful 'signs' come from God. There are signs that come from the devil. And those are signs that point to the lies that the devil wants us to believe. (2 Thessalonians 2: 9; Matthew 24:24; 16:14 and 19:20). We must judge any sign by the word of God. Then verse 14 adds that the people set up an 'image'. This was a figure of the Caesar.

About 112 AD. the Roman Governor Pliny wrote a famous letter. This tells us how he worked. He ruled Bithynia, which was to the north of Roman Asia. Sometimes accusers or ‘delators’ brought into court people as Christians. Pliny asked them three times whether or not they were Christians. If they said that they were Christians he then gave orders for them to be killed. If they said that they were not Christians, they had to worship the heathen 'gods' and Caesar. They also had to say bad things about Jesus, which no Christian could ever say. This was not long after the time of John, and not far away either. So it probably happened like that in John's time in Asia. [13.4].

In verse 15 the second wild animal makes the 'image' of Caesar speak. This was quite a common trick in the heathen religion of those days. It could be done in more than one way. And as we have seen the Romans killed anyone who would not worship the 'image' of the Caesar.

We do not know quite what 'the mark of the beast' was. (verse 16) Later on, those who worshipped the 'image' of the Caesar were given a piece of paper to show that they had done it. But we know that 'guilds' or clubs ran many trades. These 'guilds' had big meals in the temples of the false 'gods'. Christians could not join in. And your trade did not depend on how good your work was. What you made might be better and it might cost less that what other people made. Your trade depended on who you knew. You had to have someone with more honour than you to take care of you. So it was very difficult for Christians to earn enough to live on. And if only those people who had worshipped the 'image' of Caesar could buy or sell, (verse 17), this made things worse still. It is a 'mark' which the devil gives. It is not a 'seal', which is what God gives. And the devil likes to take away our names, so that we are only numbers.

So we come to verse 18. Now probably John and other people with him on the island of Patmos had lots of spare time. Some of them looked at coins to pass the time. Most coins have letters round the edge. Roman coins did. And the Greeks used the letters of their alphabet for numbers. The Romans had numbers, which they could write down, although they were not easy to use. But some of the Greek letters that were used were these:

A - 1 I - 10 S - 200

B - 2 K - 20 T - 300

G - 3 M - 40 U - 400

D - 4 0 - 70

E - 5

Now we think it was Domitian who was Caesar when John wrote. And the letters round the edge of one of his coins were these: -

A	K	A	I	D	O	M	E	T	S	E	B	G	E	[13.5]
1	20	1	10	4	70	40	5	300	200	5	2	3	5

And those figures add up to six hundred and sixty six. John says that the number is the number of a man. That man was Domitian.

Now this is not all that the number means. Seven is the number of God. And '666' means that the devil tries to be God. But he fails. And he fails three times.

Another way to look at this number is to say: -:'six times six is thirty six'. If we add up the numbers from one to thirty six we get 666. [13.6]